Re: [microsound] Mac vs PC (linux information)

[derek holzer <derek@xxxxxxx>]

Tjeerd Sietsma wrote:

> Too bad there is no professional audio tool for linux yet, afaik.

When Ardour hits 1.0 release, you may think again.

> Rezound looks
> pretty neat, just like Audacity, but it just doesn't provide the needs
> of pro's.

Which are?

> E.g. you don't want to use it in a studio. Just like lovable PD it can
> do a lot
> but it isn't ready yet, PD's documentation is incomplete just like it's
> functio-
> nality. Developers spend most of the time getting it just to work. In
> contrast
> to commercial applications like Max/MSP. This is why serious musicians
> and audio-
> philes still use Windows and/or MacOS.

I think once you understand how digital audio works, PD is almost 
identical in functionality to Max/MSP. What it lacks are only the 
high-level abstractions for people who just want to plug-and-play with 
other people's sliders instead of design their own sounds, and the 
in-depth documentation for newbies. Beyond that, they are the same 
thing. Except that one costs $500, of course. I consider that $500 the 
price you *should* pay for somebody else to write your patches for you 
and explain the documentation to you on a mailing list so that you don't 
even have to read it yourself ;-)

I guess that's why "serious musicians and audiophiles" still have to 
have well-paying day jobs.

> Another reason is that most hardware manufacturers provide drivers for
> Windows
> and Macintosh only. This means that with only linux you can't program
> e.g. your
> Roland synth or Nord Modular.
> In this perspecive linux is like a decennium behind commercial
> alternatives.

The fault of this, of course, is not with the Linux developers, who 
would love to support every piece of hardware, but with the hardware 
manufacturers, who refuse to provide documentation for their gear in a 
public way. Funny how, back in the tubes and resistors era, *every* 
piece of hardware was "open hardware". They all came with a manual and a 
detailed schematic, so that if something broke, you or the TV repairman 
next door could fix it. Nowadays, these companies are so paranoid about 
their "trade secrets" that many pieces of hardware will never be 
supported without some hacker having to reverse-engineer the entire 
thing and build drivers from scratch [as was the case with NVidia 
chipsets, video and ethernet cards, or the famous XBox and Playstation 
hacks]. I know that the policy of a company towards releasing 
information about its products is a *big* factor in my decisions as a 
consumer. And I buy a lot of hardware each year for different projects, 
and make hardware recommendations to even more people, so I'd like to 
think my view matters.

OTOH, I am suprised daily by what people code in Linux for free, and 
what you *can* actually get working. I've been able to plug-and-play 
quite a few of my friends' silly little consumer gadgets [cameras, mp3 
players, etc], largely because there is also an interest on the side of 
some programmer somewhere to get it working for themselves. If there 
were enough interest, and by this I mean enough electronic musicians 
using Linux together with certain pieces of hardware, you would see 
support for things like your Roland or Nord happening in no time at all.


> I myself am thinking of switching from Windows to linux permanently now
> but this
> is a choice everyone should make him/herself.

Of course. Enlightenment comes from within. [nyuck nyuck!]

d.


--
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 68:
"Faced with a choice, do both"

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